


March

by bunnysworld



Series: Calendar Series [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Arthur sees things</p>
            </blockquote>





	March

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Tambear13 for the beta!
> 
> Don't know if this makes sense if you didn't read the other stories in this series. So you probably might want to start at April.

It’s been almost a year. A year since Arthur tried to tell Merlin. A year since Gwaine’s birthday party. A year since he watched Leon being one step quicker than him. That one step that led to Merlin being with Leon instead of him. 

He hadn’t always been gay. Or at least that’s what he tried to tell himself. But it was like he only noticed a few years back that men were just as interesting as women. And shortly after, he realised he’d been in love with his best friend almost since they had first met. 

But he couldn’t tell him, he couldn’t ruin their friendship. And he needed some experience. To be able to please him, was the justification. And if he told himself long enough, he almost believed it. So he flirted with all the tall, good-looking blokes and got all the experience he wanted. 

And all of a sudden there was Percy. Since Arthur never had, he agreed to try out the boyfriend-thing, and failed miserably. They just weren’t meant to be. Arthur compared everything Percy was with Merlin. And everything Percy did raised the question in Arthur’s mind of how Merlin would have done the same thing. It wasn’t fair to Percy and so Arthur had ended it. They managed to stay friends and Arthur was very grateful for that. But not even Percy knew that his heart belonged to someone else. 

Someone who’d wandered out of the party, to get some fresh air, Arthur assumed. Or to get away from the loud music and talk for a while. He’d danced some more and then downed a few more drinks. It had never happened to him before that he needed some liquid courage to come on to someone. But how did you tell your best friend you loved him without ruining the friendship? 

When he was finally at the point where he took a deep breath and stepped out on the patio, the garden was empty. He looked everywhere, but there was no sight of Merlin or Leon. 

He was too late. 

For days he told himself that Leon, always the gentleman, had just taken Merlin home and that was it. But as the weeks passed, Leon always showed up with Merlin whenever they all went out. Merlin cancelled the movies or a party to spend time with Leon more than once. And then, that awful night at the club, they kissed for everyone to see and left, barely able to keep their hands off each other. 

Too late. 

So Arthur should have been happy when the news of Leon and Merlin breaking up made the rounds. But how could he be happy if two of his friends were unhappy? And yet, he could breathe more easily. 

Maybe two and a half month later was still too soon, Arthur knew his efforts could backfire and he could ruin everything. But maybe it was better to know, better to break things off completely than wondering for another year or two what might be. 

So he grabbed his jacket and keys and made his way over to Merlin’s house, where he stood, leaning against a tree, for a full hour. Was it the right thing to do? He could finally have Merlin in his life the way he wanted him. Or he could lose the best friend he ever had. All or nothing. 

Arthur took a deep breath and went into the house after a neighbour of Merlin’s. He made his way up to the third floor and knocked. Now or never.

His breath hitched when Merlin opened, clad in nothing but a pair of old faded jeans, towelling his hair. 

“Merlin!” He worried his lower lip for a moment. “Can we talk?”


End file.
